It seems that half a grand is the magic number above which any high-end slate is considered expensive, set forth by Apple's iPad franchise that starts at this price.

How do you achieve that price point with a tablet that runs full-blown Windows 8, though? Dell has managed to do it, and announced it will be selling a $499 Latitude 10 essentials Win 8 slate.

The Essentials version gets down low to the magical price by getting rid of Wacom's active digitizer, which is present on the more expensive 10" Latitude tablet, as well as introducing a sealed battery, instead of a swappable one.

The 64 GB one can be had for $579 as we speak, whereas the more affordable $499 version will sport 32 gigs, and should be shipping this quarter. This actually puts the Dell Latitude 10 Essentials at the same price point as the Acer Iconia Tab W510, which is also powered by an Atom processor, has 2 GB of RAM, and 32 GB of internal memory, as well as the same 10" 1366x768 screen as the Dell.

* New Dell Latitude 10 offers the first full-featured, enterprise-ready Windows 8 tablet experience at a price below $500US[2]* Ideal for schools and small businesses, new tablet brings ease and affordability to deploying, securing and managing tablets to budget-conscious organizations

Expanding upon the success of the Latitude 10 standard configuration launched in October 2012, Dell today announced the Latitude 10 essentials configuration to offer a secure, manageable and durable enterprise-ready tablet option to budget-conscious customers. Ideal for organizations such as schools and small businesses, the new configuration offers outstanding value with essential productivity and collaboration features and a full-featured Windows 8 tablet experience. The new Latitude 10 offers consumer customers rich entertainment features for movies, books and games, as well as compatibility with familiar applications and accessories to transition seamlessly between work and play.

"Dell's heritage is rooted in meeting the needs of our customers with cost effective, tailored solutions that empower them to reach their potential be it in the office, classroom or hospital," said Neil Hand, vice president, Dell end user computing products. "This legacy, combined with our portfolio of new enterprise services and product offerings, such as the Latitude 10, enables our customers to deploy the latest technology while balancing IT control and end-user productivity."

The new tablet snaps easily and securely into existing IT environments to help improve IT efficiency and decrease total cost-of-ownership. The Latitude 10 does not require new mobile device management or software licensing, supports new and legacy Windows applications, is compatible with Adobe Flash and connects with existing peripherals to allow end-users to work and play the way they always have. Likewise, the Latitude 10 enables seamless sharing of one device among multiple users for an affordable, safe and consistent touch computing experience.

As with the other Latitude 10 configurations, the new tablet is framed in magnesium alloy and covered with soft-touch paint for enhanced durability and a good grip. Corning® Gorilla® Glass delivers a responsive touch experience and vivid graphics display and stands up to the test of busy and active users. The Latitude 10 powers through typical school or work day and with optional Dell ProSupport™ [1], an expert engineer is available 24/7 online or by phone for unexpected hardware and software remote troubleshooting to keep end-users productive no matter where they are.

The Latitude 10 is available with an optional productivity dock for in-office productivity with a traditional keyboard and mouse for desktop content creation activities. The full-size USB port provides connectivity to existing equipment and SD card reader enables easy file transfer plus back-up when Internet access is not feasible.

Excellent tablet for school and classroom useThe new Latitude 10 essentials configuration is particularly well-suited for students and teachers and will join Dell's existing solutions and services to offer school leaders, school IT administrators and educators the support they need to create an effective, personalized learning experience for each student.

"Our commitment to innovation in education runs deep, and the Latitude 10 essentials configuration offers the robust accessibility features and personalized learning experience educators, students, and parents tell us they need for a productive classroom." said Mark Horan, Dell global education vice president. "An end-to-end education solutions provider, Dell designed this tablet with schools in mind to provide an affordable, efficient device that is a snap to manage and deploy while protecting previous investments in applications and other classroom devices".

The Latitude 10 is equipped with Microsoft Windows 8 designed to increase learning productivity and collaboration by maximizing learning time with instant access to resources through the Instant-On with Connected Stand-By mode feature. The new tablet is powered by Intel's Atom system on a chip and can run Windows 8 Snap Mode, allowing students and teachers to easily multi-task between two applications, such as interacting with a remote teacher via Skype while taking notes in Microsoft OneNote.

Availability and Pricing[2]

The Latitude 10 essentials configuration 64 GB is available today starting at $579US and the32 GB will be available in the coming months at $499US. It joins the Latitude 10 standard configuration announced in October 2012.

i dont think these tablets are great products...good yes but nothin great.
for one id ont understand why there is an atom processorr inside! its like the netbook crap all over again but this time without a keyboard! And the other thing is why are these manufacturrs so miserly in providing a regular size 256 gb ssd which is considerably cheap by the way in these tabs? these tabs cost lesser than an ultrabook or netbook to manufacture and for something I have to pay full blown laptop prices for I want the same config as a laptop.

there are tabs with full windows 8 an i5 mobile processor which is a full blown computing processor and 4 to 8gb ram so why is Dell charging this much for this under-speced tab?

I agree with you on this, tablets with atom processor are able to run all the legacy apps. and come installed with full Windows 8 version, but performance wise they are left wanting in many areas, even on Anandtech i read review of some Atom
Based windows 8 review, and saw on performance side they are not very good proposition, and even tech writers on that site accepted this fact, that the tablets with atom processors which have been launched last year, will become obsolete within one year, but for basic tasks they are okay........... Intel and Microsoft have to reduce price of their Chips and OS little bit, so that OEM's can pricee their products more competitively............

Nice price my only wish at least they put i3 there rather than atom thats use in netbook netbook that we all know r dead,they dont produce new models netbook asus samsung etc pulled the trigger,i knew at 599$ they can squeeze i3 and at 700 i5 and rt version on tegra 4 at 450$ does r fair price for consumer and the company can still make a good profit out of that win win situation everybody wins hihi

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